On March 25th 2005, a party
of Canadian climbers and hikers will set off on an assault on the world's
highest mountain, Mount Everest.

The expedition will be led by
Dr Sean Egan, an accomplished mountaineer and professor in the School of Human
Kinetics at University of Ottawa, and Peter Luk, director, School of Business
Management, Ryerson University .

Accompanying the climbing
expedition for three weeks is a party of hikers that includes senior IT
executives from private and public Canadian organizations and leaders from the
Ryerson University Business School . They will trek through Nepal to the
Everest Base Camp, starting from the exotic city of Kathmandu.

The expedition is sponsored
by Kanatek Technologies, an independent storage systems integrator based in
Ottawa , specializing in data availability, email archiving, and back up and
recovery solutions. Kanatek has a long tradition of hosting innovative events
and Kanatek president, Terry Kell says, “We want to put Canadian IT solutions
on top of the world. We will be using the latest in communications technology
to demonstrate data recovery in a hostile environment.”

The expedition is
co-sponsored by ProCurve Networking by HP, a supplier of enterprise networking
solutions, and SkyWave Mobile Communications, a world leader in
satellite-based asset tracking, monitoring, and control.

Expedition leader, Dr Egan,
says, “Two very well-respected Canadian universities are working together on
this expedition to complete some vital research. If we can get to the summit
it will be an added bonus.”

University of Ottawa and
Ryerson University have prepared research plans on coping with hypoxia (an
absence of oxygen reaching living tissues) , the relationships between fitness
and ageing, and sport tourism in the context of extreme adventure.

This is Dr Egan's third trip
to the mountain, and it will be his first summit attempt. If he his successful
in his bid, he will be the oldest Canadian to summit Mount Everest . In
preparation for his Everest expedition, Dr Egan is currently conditioning by
climbing Mount Aconcagua in Argentina (22,841 feet). Mount Everest is 29,028
feet.

It is also planned to play a
game of shinny hockey around the Khumbu glacier on Mount Everest, taking the
game to new heights.

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